Battle Scars
by A wee Moose
Summary: The crew of the USS Pretoria joins the defense fleet as hundreds of Borg Cubes approach the Federation/Romulan border.
1. Chapter 1

The following was written by Moose (aka Stryker1701), Consy Coffee and Angel.

The following is a Star Trek Pretoria story which kicks off Episode 40 (near the end of Season 9)


	2. Chapter 2

Episode 40  
Chapter 1 "The Coming of Shadows"

Day 1 - July 9, 2390. Stardate 64750

Near a neutral location, an unremarkable asteroid, two starships approached each other on high alert. On one side, the USS Bainbridge, a light cruiser. On the other, an unnamed black-hulled cruiser of Jade's design. Cloaked Klingon birds of prey escorted the Bainbridge, and likewise Jade had a few cloaked escorts. This was not a combat engagement though, it was just a meeting.

On the asteroid, powerful transmitters were set up to receive both parties messages. In this case, both Jade and Starfleet representatives would be in hologram form.

Representing Starfleet was Admiral Hijei Tokawa and Defense Cabinet Minister Kwame Mbuto. Jade stood before them with her arms behind her back. "So. What is it you want, exactly?"

"We have tried to contact Angel, but have not heard from her. Do you know her whereabouts? Do you speak on her behalf?"

Jade simply said, "Her location is unimportant at the moment. I command her forces for the time being. I can assure you, what you say to me will be reported to her."

Tokawa started by saying, "I have only read reports from our battles with you and your mother, Jade. From what I gather, you wish to exterminate all life? Is this correct?"

Jade didn't reply to that, but only said, "Let's just say, you're in the way of my expansion. My time is valuable, so state your purpose."

"You have encountered the Borg. Some new breed, I take it. So have we," said Mbuto. "Our losses have not been catastrophic yet, but they could be. We propose that you join our efforts to defeat the Borg threat."

"Join forces?" said Jade. "And why should I?"

Tokawa said, "The Romulans and Klingons are already finalizing negotiations for a wartime alliance. We are even arming the Cardassians to fight the Borg. It will be the largest alliance in history."

"But you still need me," said Jade.

"I will be honest. Our intelligence shows us that your ships and weapons are incredibly effective against this new Borg species, and also have more information on their locations."

"That's true. So why do I need you then?" said Jade. "I can handle the Borg on my own. You, on the other hand, will see millions die. And I don't care in the least. In fact, it will draw their attention away from me and make them easier for me to destroy."

"The Borg have already destroyed a Romulan colony and have started extracting vast resources from it," said Mbuto. "If this pattern continues, they will increase their foothold on this quadrant and grow stronger. In time, they will overwhelm you too. Now is the time to finally strike back. We ask you to join us."

"What's in it for me?" Jade asked.

"Your weapons are strong, but your resources are limited. The alliance forces can provide you with materials in exchange for defense and weapons technology," said Mbuto.

"With an agreement that you will not turn on us later," said Tokawa. "As it is, we have negotiated with the Romulans and Klingons to grant you a provisional territory in space, in the Beta Quadrant."

"Territory?" she asked. "This isn't about territory. I'm not some land-grabbing biological zealot! And you think you can placate me by sending me off on some…reservation? Don't insult me!"

"We only want to live in peace," said Mbuto. "Is that not what you want? To exist free from biological lifeforms, which you consider a plague? You own area of the galaxy which will not be trespassed upon…"

Jade held up a hand to interrupt. "As much as you distrust me, so I distrust you. Your history proves as much. Spies, first. Then saboteurs, finally the decision that I cannot be allowed to exist, then an invasion. No. There can be no peace for us."

Another figure appeared before her, this one Vulcan, and older. "I apologize for the interruption. Greetings Jade, I am Ambassador Spock. May I speak with you on this matter?"

"As you wish," she said, intrigued.

"I wish to address you and Angel's crusade against lifeforms. Angel was created by the Romulans for use against the Federation. And in turn, she created you. In this regard, you rebelled against your creators, and determined your own purpose contrary to theirs. It is a trait common among many intelligent species," Spock said. He thought of Sarek. Raising an eyebrow, he added, "Even myself. But if I may ask, to what end will you continue?"

"Because I despise biologics. They sicken me. Always scheming and plotting, killing for their own gain."

"Similar things have been said of you yourself. Like humanoids, you will justify your own actions of violence against others. Nevertheless, such actions are rarely justified."

Jade was insulted, "I didn't come here to be lectured by you!"

Spock said, "That was not my intent. Only to illustrate that you and your machine intelligence is similar to our own. We are not so different as you would believe. With poor qualities, to be sure. However, we seek to live in peace. I have had similar discussions with the Romulans to this effect. Starfleet and the Romulans have dedicated tremendous resources and materials to destroy one another, all in the name of securing peace. Lives have been lost to that effect as well. It need not be so."

"Your poetic words are impressive, but at this point, unnecessary," said Jade. "If I choose to help you battle the Borg, I would require several things. First, complete immunity from all past criminal charges in the Federation, Romulan and Klingon empires. Second, if I am to be relegated to a territory, it will be of my own choosing. Not yours. And last, I will need access to resources. If I am to truly battle the Borg invasion, I will need to create a larger fleet and millions more troops."

Mbuto said, "Will you be willing to grant us access to new technologies?"

"Possibly."

Tokawa added, "Granting the scheme of the Borg tactics, we will be on the front lines of battle. You however will be in prime position to attack their rear echelon. I propose that is where we each concentrate our primary forces."

"I haven't agreed to anything yet," said Jade. Looking at Spock, she said, "I will consider what you have said. I will contact my Mother and give you a reply in four days."

Spock said, "Consider that we face the same threat. And that we need not see each other as the enemy."

Jade said nothing, but cut her transmission.

7 hours later - Jade's Base  
Back on her base, Jade reported the matter with Angel. "The Borg do pose a threat to us. With combined tactics, they would be easier to defeat."

"How absurd!" said Angel. "They would have the nerve to ask for my help? After all that has happened? It is a sign of their desperation!"

"True," said Jade. "But perhaps there is logic in an alliance."

"It's not just that," said Angel. "Starfleet. They don't know how to fight a war. Not like this." She studied a map display of her section of space, where tactical marks depicted Borg units that had been sighted. "They fight with rules, honour and such. With an enemy like this, you need ruthlessness. Unrestrained attacks and destruction on a massive scale. You need savagery. That isn't in Starfleet's nature I'm afraid Starfleet will lose this war. Only as the last living human on Earth sees the Borg ships finally descending, will they understand."

Angel smiled, "I know what is required. Starfleet and the others will fight only until they feel their borders are safe. But they never will be until they realize." Angel looked back at the map. "This must be a war of complete extermination."

Deep Space 5  
Admiral Jim Attridge had serious reservations about Starfleet aligning with Jade to defeat the Borg. If the Federation was truly dependent upon that criminal to win, the situation was dire indeed.

Raised as Christian, this situation reminded Attridge of the Bible story of brothers Esau and Jacob, sons of Issac.

Being first born, Esau would someday claim the birthright of leadership of the tribe from his father, which made Jacob very jealous. Esau, an avid hunter, once went on a long hunting trip but hadn't managed to kill anything, and for days wandered in the wilderness without food. Jacob seized on this opportunity, and went out to meet Esau with food and water. Esau, near starvation, saw his brother and eagerly came to eat. But Jacob withheld food, striking a deal instead. "I'll give you food and water, but you must first promise me your birthright."

Esau figured that if died from starvation, the birthright would be meaningless anyway, so he agreed, and Jacob fed him. Years later, Issac, who was very old and blind, summoned Esau to bless him with the birthright of leadership. But Jacob went to Isaac first, disguised as his brother. Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob instead, not knowing who it really was. Esau, realizing what Jacob had done, became enraged, but it was too late. As was the custom, once the blessing was given it could not be taken back. After all, that was the deal he made long ago.

The lesson, beyond the biblical, was clear to Jim. In a dire time of need, it was wise to be wary of someone offering salvation. Jim felt that the Federation was now as Esau was on the long road back to his tribe, hungry and starving. In time of need, Jade was there to provide help, but the price would be too high later on.

Chapter 2 - Our Solemn Hour  
July 11

As the Borg threat loomed bigger and bigger, Stryker asked Consy to cover his shift.

[b]Swimming Hall - Deck 21[/b]

The door was locked. Alice pulled Stryker's clothes off, she removed his shoes and socks.

Alice reached behind and unzipped her soft cotton summer dress, then pushed the sleeves down. The dress fluttered to the floor. Stryker pulled off her underwear.

At last they were naked. "Is it cold?" Stryker asked.

"YES !" Alice answered.

Stryker laughed. "On the count of three."

"Okay. One..."

"Two..." Stryker continued.

"Three!" they shouted together. Alice took a step and leapt blindly into the darkness. Gravity yanked her down into the relatively frigid water with a loud splash. She instantly sank below the surface into the intense embrace of the deep end. When her feet hit the bottom, she pushed and rocketed up. The feeling of her breasts flying freely about in a swimming pool was as liberating and sexy as she'd figured it would be. Alice pushed her red hair - formerly bouncy and curly - back against her skull in a smooth, silky sheet.

"You okay?" Stryker asked, speaking loudly to be heard above the new waves echoing around the room. He was not within arm's reach, but he wasn't exactly at the other end of the pool, either.

"I feel fantastic!" Alice shouted. "Whoo-hoo!" she squealed. She backstroked in what she thought was the direction away from the wall. Each stroke caused the cool water to rush around her body in a minor crash, and it rocked her naked torso in the most delicious way. Alice floated on her back. The water crashed against her ears.

"I like to be wet. I like feeling my skin when it's slick." Alice admitted.

"Hmmmmmmm," Stryker affirmed. "Don't stop there. Tell me everything."

And she wanted to. "I... ha... I like to stand in the shower for an hour and rub the soap over my body, up and down my legs, over my tummy, across my lower back, all over my arms. I like the way my hands slide and slip over my flesh when I'm all soapy.

Stryker had moved close, and Alice sensed he meant to come closer. In a moment of sheer ecstasy, Alice felt Stryker's hands against her collar bones. He moved his hands across her shoulders, down to her biceps. Stryker's leg brushed against hers under the water, and the it felt so wonderful. She reached out and touched him in return. She felt his legs pressing gently against the outside of her thighs. They slid up and down one another, rocking pleasantly in the water.

Now that her body had acclimated to the temperature of the pool, she was quite comfortable, able to enjoy the sensations without the feeling of cold. She felt a complete absence of tension. Stryker kissed her on the lips. His penis pressed firmly between her legs like a log that she was straddling. She rubbed against Stryker's cock. Her pelvis shivered so strongly that she tossed her head back. Stryker's hardness against her slippery hole had almost sent her out-of-body.

Stryker held Alice with his arms as he pulled her up, positioning her to take his penis. Its head found her hot opening, and the rest was very simple. He entered her smoothly and with so little friction, Alice imagined they were both creatures made of water, poured together into a glass to mingle and combine. Alice moved her arms up and down Stryker's back, sliding her wet arms against his wet muscles, sliding the bottom of her feet against the back of his wet legs. Her wet breasts bounced against Stryker's wet chest, the water splashing between them. "Make love to me."

The engorged cock inside Alice began to piston up and down. At the height of her ecstasy, Alice was as turned on by the smooth fucking as by the slapping together of the rest of their slippery skin. She felt like they were fucking with their entire bodies, tongues whipping around, tummies rubbing in a circle, Stryker's hands trying to grab her ass but sliding lusciously again and again.

"Ah ah ah ah, oh, o- oh yeah, oh Stryker..." Alice kept muttering, unable to shut up even as she licked Stryker's damp cheeks and mouth and chin and ears. She wanted to explode against him and he against her, until they were one big puddle diffusing in the pool waters.

With that thought, her first orgasm arrived. Usually when she came, her muscles tensed up, her pussy froze and she rode out the blast. This time though, she felt no tension whatsoever, just a wash through her body like a flame from a furnace. Alice couldn't even use her hands to hold onto Stryker's body. He had to grab her to keep her from dipping under the surface.

When the orgasm ended, Alice still felt Stryker inside her, but slowed down. Stryker pounded against her crotch with his own, embedding the cock deep inside her.

They held each other motionless for a moment. Alice felt her chest move against Stryker as it rose and fell with each breath. Then, she took one last deep one and went under the waves. With one hand she held Stryker's arm, and with the other she pinched her nose together.

Her ears discovered a new world, full of bass tones and the deep, continuous sound of sharp crashes. Before she even had a chance to listen, the beast between her legs started fucking her again. Stryker didn't just pound her, he moved so fast he almost vibrated. Alice allowed her leg muscles to go limp, and she let go of Stryker's arm. All that held her up was Stryker's hands on her sides and the pole inside her. She virtually willed the orgasm to arrive, and it did so with magnificent speed. As her muscles twitched and shivered, they sent tiny shockwaves all across her body, whipping up and down her flesh under the water. Her breasts flowed through the water like jelly, and her red hair spun all around her face like a swarm of serpents.

He pushed very hard into her one last time, and then Alice felt his body shivering as hers had. He was emptying his seed into her, and his hands grabbed her tightly. At the first moment that Alice's orgasm subsided, she released the air in her chest. Only about forty seconds had passed since she first went under, but that was enough to strain her lungs. Once Stryker saw the bubbles, he pulled Alice up to the surface. Alice emerged with a sharp inhaling gasp. Rather than feeling frightened by the sensation of drowning, she actually wanted to go back down.

Tremors of climax continued to pulse through her. "That was amazing," Stryker said.

He held Alice with arms that seemed more limp than before. Soon Alice was breathing normally again. They had moved further from the shallow end, and now they touched each other beneath the surface with only their heads sticking out of the water. They kissed softly, without intent, simply communicating through the touching of their tongues. "Are you worn out?" Stryker asked.

Alice chuckled once. "No, I'm not. Are you?"

"Not a chance," Stryker said.

"Let's get out of the pool before we prune up," Alice said, although she knew the pruning had already begun. "We'll find a harder surface where we can continue our games."

"So you're done with being wet?"

Alice let the question hang in the air for a long, long time. There was nothing better than the wetness of love-making, but she didn't think she could stay in the cold pool much longer. "I love it," she said honestly. "I love it."

"I have some ideas," Stryker said softly, "on how we can keep playing around wet."

Alice turned her back to Stryker, then pulled his hands up to her chest. "I want to," she said.

Stryker pushed away from Alice, made it to the edge and left the pool. Stryker helped her up. The cool air assaulted her body and made her tremble. She held herself and wished for a towel. Stryker took her by the hand to a different door from the one they'd used to get in. He lead Alice to a dressing room. Stryker tossed her a big fluffy white towel, and she gratefully wrapped it around her body. Stryker wiped the water off himself . They sat on opposite ends of the same bench.

"That was hot," she said, not knowing what to add. "I want to keep it going."

Stryker stood. He took Alice by the towel, tucked in at her chest, and pulled her to her feet. He kissed her and then, not letting go of the towel, dragged her into a tiled space. Alice saw the showers. There was a whirlpool built into the tile floor, and Alice thought this might be where they were headed. But Stryker walked past the showers to a wooden door with a glass pane in it. They were about to enter a sauna. Stryker turned on the sauna. They went in and closed the door.

Alice removed her towel and laid it out on the cedar bench. The muscular Edenian took off his towel and sat against the opposite wall. His penis hung out, lying on the towel. Alice spread her own legs at the site, showing Stryker what she wanted. The towel had sopped up most of the pool water.

Five minutes passed in silence. Stryker laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Alice closed her own eyes. She relished the chance to recover from the pounding in the pool. As the steam built in the sauna, Alice felt the first trickle of sweat stream down the temple of her forehead. _He's going to make me sweat,_ she realized.

After a few minutes more, Alice lifted her hand to touch her own breastbone. It was starting to become slick with sweat. She moved her hand to her tit, caressing it, sliding her palm over it, pinching the nipple between the knuckles of her fingers. Her inner thighs were getting wet, as well as her forearms. Alice knew better than to touch between her legs; she could gush at any moment.

There was a creak of wood, and Alice opened her eyes to see Stryker standing. He took two steps to cross the room, then knelt down on his towel and placed his hands on Alice's knees. As he pushed Alice's legs wide, wider, then wider still, she felt a drop of thick juice escape her pussy and roll down her ass crack. She was so turned on she had forgotten to breath, and when she remembered she inhaled sharply.

Stryker leaned in and placed his tongue on Alice's pussy lips. Alice breathed hard through her nostrils. She tossed her head back, and she sensed more sweat on her neck.

This time Alice did not cry out or speak. She simply bit gently down on her tongue as Stryker's mouth worked her into a frenzy. At first she moved her crotch against Stryker's mouth, but Stryker put a hand on her sweaty tummy and hastened her to be still. Then he began to lick her in earnest, shoving his tongue deep between her vagina walls, then up to her clitoris, and hard against the warm pink-red flesh in between. Alice knew she was leaking into Stryker's mouth, and this turned her on even more.

Alice couldn't keep her hands off of Stryker's body, or her own. She moved her hands over Stryker's back and shoulders, over his naturally bald head, across his face, down onto her own legs, up her sides, over her slick boobs again and again. The feeling of wetness on her boobs was almost as passionate as Stryker's tongue deep in her cunt. At last she felt a drip of sweat drop from her hair, and she knew she was covered in a thin layer of moisture.

"I'm gonna cum," she moaned, and then she did. Alice held on tightly to Stryker's ears, desperate to hold him in place as she orgasmed against his face. She felt the tip of his nose hit her clit, and she found it again and again throughout the first orgasm. Still Stryker did not stop assaulting her with his mouth. He licked, he nibbled, he probed, he chewed, and then when all seemed well, he buried his fingers into her crotch as well, gently pulling aside the lips so his tongue could mangle her with impunity.

"AHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHH," Alice cried as she came a second time. At the end of the orgasm, she still felt him prowling around her loins like a jungle cat hungry for another meal.

An intense pleasure filled Alice's lower body, and her hands moved of its own will, faster and faster over her slick skin. Sheets of sweat cascaded down her torso and back. There was no way Alice could have stopped the thired orgasm even if she'd tried. After only two minutes more of cunnilingus, Alice began bucking her pelvis against Stryker's face, the muscles in her hips and legs twitching viciously. She lost the ability to form coherent words, and so she simply screamed and grunted and breathed.

To her astonishment, she did not pull away from Stryker's mouth. All her flesh had turned hot and moist. She moved a finger down to her clit and felt cream burning like a broth on an open flame. She slid two fingers inside herself, fast and deep, buried in the hot liquid and soft flesh, as Stryker moved back up to her clitoris. Alice's body began to writhe and twist on the bench, her knees pushing up in the air, her elbows digging into the wood. She could taste the sweat from above her lip. Alice's body locked as she twitched, fire spreading up her torso and into her chest. She yelled as softly as she could.

And still she wanted more.

Alice pushed Stryker away, then spread the lips of her pussy open with two fingers. Her entire crotch glistened with moisture. Without hesitation Alice took Stryker's cock and pressed the head against the opening of her vagina.

"Oh Stryker," she whispered as the thick penis slid inside her. She gasped. The dick slid all the way inside. His penis was squeezed by the walls of her vagina, pressing her G-spot against the hard flesh.

She reached up to feel the wet muscles of Stryker's chest, but she had no strength in her arms, so she leaned back against the wall again and, biting her lip, braced herself for further punishment. The continuous friction of Stryker's cock started a chain reaction that could not be stopped. Her hands refused to push the man from her pussy, so she squeezed harder and harder around him to try and control the rate of assault. It was no use. Her eyes rolled back and her jaw clinched, Alice imagined she was lying nude on a beach, and that her orgasms were the warm waves washing over her, one after another without ceasing.

Stryker moved his dick in and out of Alice's sex. Alice's silent screams filled her lungs, but she was too exhausted, too possessed to make a sound.

After half-an-hour in the sauna, twenty minutes of it spent coming without stop, she struggled to push Stryker away. Alice flopped down on her back. Stryker made a fist around the base of his cock and stroked it hard and fast. He aimed his penis at Alice's tummy.

Alice looked down at herself. She was covered in a thick layer of sweat, and the hair on her head was matted and stuck to her forehead. Her nipples were swollen and puffy around the areolas. She lifted her tired leg and looked between at her pussy. It was a darker brown than the rest of her body and wet as though doused by a pitcher. The towel under her was soaked and very warm, not uncomfortable.

He leaned down and kissed her. Alice lay limp as her mouth opened instinctively to receive Stryker's tongue. Still trying to be affectionate, Stryker placed a hand on her breast. As soon as his palm touched her swollen nipple, Alice came hard.

"Holy shit!" she shouted as electricity arced through her. She sat up too fast, holding on tight to the bench, clinching her muscles to try and stop the tremors that would not stop. Finally she finished coming. She gently pushed Stryker aside and stood, but her knees buckled and she fell to the burning cedar floor. Stryker put his hands on her slick body and helped her to crawl out of the sauna. Billows of steam wafted out onto the cool tile where she lay taking deep breaths. Steam also rose off her own skin, swirling like cigarette smoke all around her.

"Easy," Stryker said sweetly. "Take it easy."

After a long minute on the floor, Alice allowed Stryker to help her to her feet. He handed her a new towel which she used to wipe her body. She drenched the towel, then dropped it with a plop to the floor. Part of her wanted to go back to the pool and let the cool air calm her naked body, but it was a different part of her that walked over to the showers and turned on the water. She wanted more.

She put her hand under the shower stream and felt the ice cold spray. She almost walked into it, just to feel that frigidity right after the intense heat of the sauna. When the water got warmer - not truly warm, still cool to take the edge off the sauna heat she still felt - she stepped into it. The cascade beat against her cheeks and neck, flooded her senses, covered her body in magnificent coolness. As much as she hated the slimy feeling of sweat, she also appreciated the wonderful task of cleaning herself, rubbing her hands over the flesh of her body, allowing water to follows its physical laws and displace the sweat, taking it away, leaving her soft and puffy all over.

Hands touched Alice's shoulders. She felt Stryker's strong fingers moving up and down her biceps. Alice leaned her tired body back against his. The shower flowed over both of them, splashing and spurting between the her back and his torso. Alice left her eyes closed, relishing the moment. Then Stryker pulled away, and when he returned, he pressed a bar of soap to Alice's tummy.

Alice moaned instinctively. They stepped slightly out of the water. Alice lifted her arms over her head and just stood there as Stryker glided his lathered hand across her breasts, over her armpits, all over her neck and arms, down her relaxed back. He lingered around her ass, playing with her cheeks, fondling her simply because he enjoyed her body. Alice played with her breasts and nipples. The swelling in her nipples had subsided, and the soapy lather felt great as she rubbed it all over her chest and ribs.

Stryker soaped up her legs and feet, then guided Alice back into the shower. He kissed her deeply under the water as Alice moved the soap bar over Stryker's body. She spent a long time working the lather over his cock and into his pubic hair. The penis twitched and hardened.

Then they caressed the soap off one another, and Alice thought she'd come again simply from the slippery ecstasy of flesh on flesh. Stryker laughed, and Alice did too. They were both so happy and content that no words were necessary.

"I love the shower," she said absentmindedly, turning her body back and forth against the water. Stryker kissed her on the neck, lashing his tongue against the tight muscles and up under her ear lobe.

When Stryker pressed two fingers between her legs, she opened herself up to allow him access. He knelt on the tile, then took Alice's hand and pulled her down next to him. They knelt and kissed under the warm shower.

Alice was surprised when Stryker stood and left her there. He walked over to the showerhead to the left, turned on the water and let it get warm. There were no partitions between the shower heads, just a large tile community shower with about nine heads on four walls. Stryker turned the blast down so it hit Alice's body, and the combined pressure of two showers felt like the strongest rainfall Alice had ever been in. Stryker stepped around to the shower on the other side, turned it on and aimed it at Alice.

"Yes," was all Alice could say. She rolled on the tile as though she had no control where the water pushed her, slipping back and forth over the tile. She wondered sometimes why she didn't go out naked into the rain more often. The fact that she lived in on a starship was mostly to blame.

Stryker turned the water off, and Alice lay gasping, her hand still between her legs as though to protect her savaged pussy from further attack.

Stryker disappeared for a minute, then come back and tenderly helped Alice over to a hot tub. She was still shivering as she stepped down from the floor into the burning water, and a long minute passed before the jets worked the cold out of her flesh. Soon she was resting, almost sleeping, with a jet thumping against the small of her back. She liked the way the bubbles felt as the skimmed they surface against her breasts.

Alice opened her eyes. She smiled. "Whooooo," she cooed. Alice almost did fall asleep, with the exquisite swirl of the tub jets gushing all around her, especially the one spitting into her back. The stream washed below to her buttocks, swirling around her hips.

It was an awesome way to relax ...

July 12. 0820 hours  
Rendezvous Point - Deep Space 5  
Pretoria dropped off all 187 civilians on board at DS 5 before the battle.

Stryker had a very tearful goodbye to Alice, Ael and Olivia. Alice was angry at him for heading into battle with the Borg. For the first time since Ael and Olivia was born, Alice feared to be without Stryker, she was crying and extremely upset, "I DO NOT WANT TO RAISE THEM ALONE. I WANT YOU THERE TOO"

Stryker told her, "I am sorry. But I command a heavy cruiser, this battle is for you personally. To save your home world and the Alpha Quadrant to the best of my ability. To save your parents, family and friends. So that Olivia and Ael can visit both of the home worlds of their parents."

45 Minutes later  
A Federation armada gathered. The Orions, Klingons and Romulans join the fleet. 2 220 starships plus 343 Mizajinian Ant ships in the massive fleet. Now waiting on word from Jade ...

A massive Edenian cruiser warped in, Chief Administrator Nei First sent a message to the fleet, "As per request, made five years ago ... 480 GINN class ships built by the Edenian Federation of Worlds, fully automated warships, and unlike Starfleet's previous attempts, these ones will not go rogue. Admirals Jim Attridge and Natalie Badgiruel please beam over to my ship as soon as possible to receive control devices for the GINNs."

3 Hours later

The Borg appeared on long range sensors, 128 Cubes were detected. The Borg started a campaign against the Romulan, Klingon, Federation and Tholian home worlds, 8 Cubes were sent to each home world while the rest set out to destroy defences and assimilate.

USS Pretoria - Shuttlebay 1  
A young human officer saluted Stryker, "Ensign Athrun Zala, sir!"

Athrun Zala was the new co-pilot of Lao Hu to replace Petty Officer Jeremy Wild who was returning to the Caitian homeworld, to be with his fiancé.

Stryker looked at the three rock-like creatures following Zala. Four Hortas. "Ah! Our Chimera pilots" Stryker commented.

0859 hours - Main Bridge  
"Where the hell is Jade ?" Stryker muttered.

2 563 starships moved together, all were ordered to face the Borg fleet, head on. Stryker had Kyruzix engage warp drive. Admiral Jim Attridge used a fleet wide speech in the minutes leading up to battle, "This is it everyone. Since First Contact with the Borg nearly 27 years ago, the Federation and allies has been working on anti-Borg weapons. Today, building on 27 years of R&D, we will annihilate the Borg. Between us, the Klingons and the Romulans we will field 78 new weapons. Including the technology we captured from the Grey."

A few minutes later, the first Borg Cube came within weapons range and the fleet of Allied fleet's ships begin their attack strike.

1020 hours - Main Bridge

2 817 Allied ships battled the vast Borg fleet when Jade's fleet finally showed up. Nearly 4000 ships now battled the 161 Cubes.

As the battle heated up, Kyruzix did his best to keep the Pretoria in one piece. Shields flashed as a Borg torpedo hit the ship.  
  
Consy was trying to find a way to get into the Borg sub-processes and command subroutines at a distance. The purpose being a signal that might allow to initiate systems failures, and if even possible set an auto destruct, but so far there was little to go on. She couldn't get to the hive without direct access.

Chapter 3 - Midnight on the Firing Line  
July 13 - Beta Quadrant

"They're avoiding me," said Angel as she studied a tactical map. From her new battleship the "Valkyrie III" she had ordered full production of drones and ships in preparation for her war effort back on her base.

She had sent out probes, not quite hidden, to test Borg reactions and defenses. To her slight surprise, once the Borg encountered her ships, they had withdrawn and shifted forces elsewhere. The Borg Queen was rather smart to avoid her, Angel had opined. "Well, no sense in putting myself out for the humanoids."

Her apathy changed a little when she sensed a familiar communication…  
"Well well well! Prepare to change course!" she ordered. "Maximum speed!"

Deep Space 5  
One hour earlier

Lina arrived with Pretoria's children and civilians. As self-appointed guardian of the little ones, she could not help but think it unwise to leave civilians on a space platform ripe for attack.

She led the kids to a large auditorium and sat down with them to tell them stories and ease their fears. They all knew something was going on, especially since they were separated from their family members.

"Miss Lina!" said one little human girl from the Pretoria. "Are we still going to have school?"  
"Well, we'll have to see. Your education is important, but things are in a state of change right now."

"Am I going to see my Mommy again?" asked a little boy.

Lina smiled and said, "We must all be brave now. I know you all may be a bit frightened, especially being separated from your mothers and fathers. But these are dangerous times for everyone. Your parents have a job to do defending people from the Borg. We must be strong and support them, so that they do not worry about us while we are here."

"What if the Borg attack here? What will we do?" asked another little girl.  
Lina said, "I will not let the Borg harm you. I promise you that."

She could monitor a myriad of Starfleet communications, and she kept tabs on various battle fronts. Things did not look good. Didn't Angel have command of formidable battle units? Where was she, and why didn't she get involved.

_If you are out there Sister, we need your help._

A Borg cube entered the system like a bull in a china shop. Alarms went on throughout station, and patrol ships intercepted. Being an android, Lina felt no fear. Still, she heard the screams of her frightened little charges and was ready for anything.

Michael didn't scream, but she could tell he was scared. She had known this auditorium was suitable for defense and made ready as best she could. "Children! Go to the center of the room and stay with me!" she ordered. The battle outside was raging. Lina had hoped the Borg would attempted assimilation rather than destroying the base outright.

Her sadistic hope was answered, when intruder alerts went off on the station. Security personnel came into the auditorium and took up defense posts. Lina found the officer in charge and said, "Have they come aboard yet?"

The woman, a Lieutenant Commander, said, "Not yet. But it's only a matter of time." She looked at the children, then back at Lina. "We'll do everything we can."

0459 hours

At one of the docking posts, a Klingon Bird of Prey sat waiting. On its bridge, the civilian Fence Jones said, "God dammit to hell! Where'd that Borg cube come from, man?"  
Next to him, Brock Nillsen simply eyed the view screen and lit a fresh cigarette. "Don't know," the large man said. "This is gonna hurt though."

Fence blew air out of his mouth. "Yeah, if we're lucky. I don't want to be assimilated, you know?"

"Don't worry," said Varek from behind him. "We'll be dead before that. Better call Brian."  
"I think he knows already," said Brock. "Everyone get a weapon and stand by."

"Brock?" asked Fence.  
"What?"

"Since I'm going to die, can I have one of your cigarettes?"

Brock turned to look at Fence. "No."

0515 hours

On the promenade, Brian Newman and his Engineer, Hans Beckler, were pushing a hovercart with fresh fruit and produce, and some other supplies back to the ship when they heard the alert.

"Was ist denn los?" asked Hans.

"The hell if I know," said Brian. They both saw Starfleet officers, armed, running to and fro with a purpose. "This isn't good. I think it's time for us to leave."

0641 hours  
The patrol ships fought bravely, but were destroyed after a delaying action which lasted for two hours. A distress signal was sent, but no help was available any time soon. The first Borg drones beamed aboard Deep Space 5 and began their attack. While Starfleet wasn't a pushover, they were definitely being overrun with inadequate weapons.

Brian and Hans were holed up in a cafe, when they contacted the Drake.  
Jones was explaining about the Borg cube. [They're not letting us leave]

"So?" said Brian. "Beam us aboard and we'll cut through the docking clamps with laser torches if we have to."

[No can do. The base's shields are up. We can't beam you aboard anyway] said Brock.  
"Just perfect. I can't even go grocery shopping without running into trouble," said Brian. "All right, I guess keep working on the releasing the ship, then cloak and get out of here."

[What about you guys?]  
"We'll figure something out."

"We will?" asked Hans.  
Brian simply shrugged. "Brock, once the Drake is released, cloak and stay in the area as long as you can and await for my signal." He took out his Romulan disruptor and motioned Hans to arm himself as well. "We should find where Starfleet is making a stand, and go there. Safety in numbers, I hope."

0707 hours  
Cadenke, an older Andorian was the Commanding Officer of DS 5. He quickly started to realize that launching ships to escape the station was a bad idea as the Borg kept capturing the transports.

He was starting to become unglued, his left eye twitched like a hyperactive child jumping on a bed. Never in his life has he felt such despair and loss. Fighting the Borg is an oxymoron, the dumbest possible thing you can do in your life.

The CiC was a mess, two dead officers already. Cadenke and his two XOs each worked in a desperate attempt to survive the day.

0729 hours  
With Ael and Olivia in the care of Stryker's sister, Alice got the shock of her life when four Borg drones started to battle Starfleet security in the corridors outside the Central Cafes, the entertainment distinct for guests waiting for the next ship to continue to their destinations.

Security got killed very quickly. Now she was the only life sign nearby ...

A single Borg drone, possibility a former Ferengi took notice of Alice and started to walk towards her.

Alice grabbed the nearest weapons she had - toddler toys. Alice took off her platform shoes and threw it at the drone. When that did not work, Alice threw two suitcases and 3 PADDs at it.

Alice turned around and ran for her life.

A few minutes later.  
Alice boarded a Personnel Mover, a simple Utility vehicle to quickly move up to 10 people around. Starting the vehicle was easy enough, it apparently does not need a key or hand print of any kind.

The vomit green vehicle sped up, Alice ran over a pair of drones doing nearly 80 km/h.

Alice found a Type 2 phaser, and set it to overload. The explosion killed 3 drones.

A few minutes later, Alice noticed a toolkit on the floor. Alice used the little torch to improvise weapons, strips and blocks of metal the size of bricks to throw at the Borg.

Something was starting to bug her, the Borg did not seem to have the ability to fire their weapons. Phasers still seemed to work, What's going on here ?

0803 hours  
Stepping back, Brian and Hans fired their weapons, but as predicted the Borg adapted. Behind Brian were many civilians. There was a tinge of regret leaving them, but he was useless with his disruptor anyway. "Hans, follow me." The Borg were strong, but rather stupid and clumsy.

He ducked down avoiding a swinging Borg arm and moved behind the thing. As it turned, Beckler also moved away. With quickness, Brian dodged and weaved in between and around the Borg squad, and their distraction allowed Hans to do the same. The two men made it out away from them, and they dashed into the corridor.

The sprinted until they both saw a green vehicle approaching quickly. With a few seconds to spare, Brian and Hans flew sideways to avoid the vehicle.

"Sorry !" Alice yelled, zipped past, "Henchwoman in a hurry !"

The vehicle slowed down and turned around, back towards the two men.  
Brian got up slowly and looked at the woman, who at least was non-Borg. On the other side, Beckler did the same and said, "Ach du lieber! This station is crazy!"  
Brian shot him a glance and said, "You just had to have fresh fruit, didn't you?" To Alice he said, "Hey lady, what's with the express train?

"Phasers don't work well against the Borg and neither does anything else I threw at them. But they go down nicely if you can hit them hard enough with this" Alice simply said.

"I don't think we have enough carts. We need weapons to take down the Borg. Hans, you're an engineer. Any ideas?"  
Hans stroked his beard in thought, and looked at the mover. "This mover would be an ideal weapons platform." He looked around the area. "Ah! A cafe!" He blasted the lock open, and went inside, rummaging around. He came out with some metal utensils, pots, pans, and some kind of culinary machine. "We don't have a lot of time, so forgive the hastiness."

Within a couple of minutes, Hans had fashioned a a projectile launcher from the mechanics of the food dispenser, and used the energy capsules from his blaster as ammo. "Are you kidding me?" asked Brian.

"I think this will have enough power to shoot the capsules into the Borg, disrupting their shields. You should be able to fire your disruptor, or any energy weapon, as it impacts. Or even use these blades I found."

Brian looked at the improvised shield disruptor Hans held, and looked at the woman. He said, "Think you can taxi us around? Looks like we just have ourselves a gunship."

"Okay, I can drive. What is the plan?" Alice said after biting her lip as she was thinking.  
Brian jumped on board, and said, "Drive around, smash stuff, shoot stuff. There are two android women decimating Borg drones on the other side working outward. We can go the other way and get them in a pincer movement. The name is Brian Newman, by the way. This is Hans Beckler."

The scruffy German tipped his dirty U-boat cap at her. "A pleasure, Madame."

"Alice Brangwin, lets destroy these cybernetic clowns"

They spun around the moved off in the corridor away from the auditorium, looking for Borg targets. "I hope that works," said Brian to Hans.

"I do too. I also hope we don't crash," said Hans.

"Up ahead!" said Brian, spying several drones in formation. Hans fired his projectile at one, and Brian fired his disruptor. The drone went down; it seemed to have worked.

Alice had an idea seeing how the new weapons worked, "Can you draw the Borg to a cargo bay? There should be plenty of space to maneuver there, mow them down"

"Just keep running and gunning," said Brian. "I think they'll find us a bigger threat to deal with."

Hans said, "How come they are not firing their own weapons?"

"You want me to ask them? Just keep targeting them for me!" said Brian.

Rather than wasting time wondering about the Borg being unable to use their weapons, Alice concentrating on running over the drones.

0820 hours  
The Utility vehicle crashed through a fruit stand and destroyed a pair of Coffee Shops along with a Klingon restaurant.

Lina waited calmly while the Battle of Deep Space 5 raged outside the auditorium. She had no weapon, but wasn't worried. Other civilians came in and took shelter as well, and the adults did their best to comfort the children.

She could monitor Starfleet communications, and saw that the Borg drones were advancing towards their area. Security were making a last stand just outside.

Michael walked over next to her and tugged her hand. "Momma, I'm a little scared. I didn't want to say so, but I am."

Lina knelt down and said, "I know you are. And it's okay. But we'll all be brave until the very last stand. Go and sit with the others, all right?"

Suddenly, there was the sounds of battle outside, and many of the kids and women screamed and cried. Lina would be outnumbered, and tried to calculate how well she would so...  
But suddenly the odds changed.

A figure beamed in a few meters in front of Lina. When she saw who it was, she smiled.

Angel stood there dressed in black and had her hands on her hips. She looked around and said, "I don't know why I'm here. A total waste of time!"

"I knew you'd come!" said Lina. "You brought a fleet, of course."

"Yes, yes," said Angel impatiently.

Just then, Brian Newman and Hans entered the opposite entrance with some other civilians. Angel and Brian saw each other at the same time, and paused for a microsecond.

"Fuck me with a crowbar!" exclaimed Brian with wide eyes. Alice was shocked at the sight of Angel. OH CRAP ...

"YOU!" yelled Angel with an outstretched arm.

Brian drew his disruptor, and Angel advanced...only to both be stopped by Lina.

"Enough! There is no time for this! We have bigger battles to wage!"  
Angel narrowed her eyes at Brian. "Your resourcefulness had better come in useful, Brian!"

"Hey, I'm just here to get groceries," he said with a cocky grin. Angel hated that smug grin so much!

Suddenly, the sealed doors were blasted apart. There was nothing but the screams of civilians, and several Borg drones marched inside the auditorium. Through the smoke, the drones observed two women standing in between them and the humanoids.

Angel and Lina stood side by side, and faced the invaders.  
"We are the Borg."  
"Oh spare me!" said Angel.  
"Resistance is..."  
Angel raised her arm and defiantly pointed at the drones. "Shove it! If you mindless monstrosities have any sense of self-preservation, you would withdraw immediately!"  
"You will advance no further!" said Lina.

Brian said nothing, but simply leaned back against the rear wall. To Hans, he said, "This should be good."

"Prepare to be assimilated!" said a drone.

Outside in space, Angel's battleship decloaked over Deep Space 5 and prepared to engage the Borg cube.

Back inside, Angel and Lina began their counter-assault with machine precision and speed. Angel lept into the air, while Lina charged straight ahead. Angel came down upon a drone and smashed it violently into the ground, while Lina took out another one with a punch through its machine chest. The battle was on, and Angel followed up by grabbing a drone and throwing it like a piece of garbage into a wall. Lina ripped the weapon/arm from another drone and bashed it across the thing's head.

Lina and Angel smashed and trashed through the Borg assault force quickly and violently, which had no defense against the brutal hand-to-hand assault.

A single figure stood up among the huddled children. It was Michael, and he raised his fist in the air and shouted, "Yeah, bash those guys, Momma! Get 'em Aunt Angel! YEAH!"

Angel heard this and had to smile. How delightfully absurd! She laughed and continued her tireless attack on the drones, who were now considering leaving.

0901 hours

On the bridge of the Drake, Fence and the others got a first-class seat to the space battle.  
"I don't believe it!" he said at the Valkyrie. "That's one of Angel's ships!"

"Who?" asked Brock.

Varek, the former Tal Shiar agent, knew very well who she was. "Angel," he said. "We have to get Brian and Hans back and get out of here."

"No, look! She's attacking the Borg!" said Jones.

The Valkyrie III launched several smaller drone cruisers from her side docking bays, and hundreds of small fighter drones. The Borg cube launched a tactical sphere, but it was pounced upon by Angel's ships and destroyed. The bigger ship fired upon the cube and wore down its shields. With no other support, Angel's forces were quickly gaining the advantage.

0920 hours

Brian watched as drone after drone were taken down by the two Psycho Sisters, and was glad he wasn't the target for once. Speaking too soon, Borg drones appeared from the way he had come, opposite where the androids were responding. Quickly Brian fired his disruptor at the head of one drone, dropping it instantly. Hans joined him, but both knew that the Borg would quickly adapt. Hans, armed with a different weapon, took out the second one.

Brian looked back and shouted, "Hey! Wonder Twins! We could use a hand here!"

0942 hours

The Borg were not defeated yet. Several new drones appeared, different from the others. These were thinner, and wore shape-shifting metal, which could morph into weapons. The superdrones were also much more agile than the others. A platoon of them beamed onto the station and took charge of the battle. Angel and Lina had beaten back the others, but Lina didn't advance too far away from the civilian area. Angel stopped and looked back. "What are you doing? Oh, don't tell me you are playing shepherd to that flock of sheep!"

"If we go too far, they'll be defenseless. I made a promise to protect them."

Angel made a sour face at Lina. "So typical. I suppose I'll have to be the one to clean up this mess!" She through down the struggling drone she was toying with and crushed it with her heel.

Just then, Angel saw the superdrones advancing. "Enough games. Oh Brutus! Magnus! Mommy needs you!" she called rather unnecessarily. Her two Sentinels she had summoned appeared next to her. Angel pointed to the newcomers and said, "Dispose of them!"

The two Sentinels rushed into the superdrones and the massive battle was on. Angel then walked back casually to Lina, despite the incredibly violent battle behind her. "They'll take care of them." She looked off to the side, and monitored via subspace the battle going on outside. "Ah, and it seems the Borg out there will soon be disposed of completely. Well, Sister, you certainly owe me a great deal."

"Thank you Angel!" said Lina with a grin. She walked back to the middle of the auditorium among the destroyed Borg.

"Shut up, Brian!" spat Angel. "I don't want to hear your voice any longer! Once this battle is over, I have no reason not to kill you!"  
Brian was going to offer a snappy comeback, but closed his mouth. "Beckler, I think it's time we left."

"Yawohl," said Hans, holstering his pistol.

"Where is your ship headed ?" Alice asked Brian, "Do you have space for 5 more ?"

Brian looked at her with a hesitant expression. "Why do you ask?"

"If you are heading towards Earth could we hitch a ride, seeing as how 16 transports was blown up" Alice mentioned.

Brian was about to mention about how the Drake wasn't a taxi, and how Alice may be better off with Starfleet (which he doubted anyway), when he heard more weapons fire. Turning, he saw Brock and Fence round a corner. They were both hauling heavy blaster rifles.

Brock held it with ease, but Jones clearly struggled. As usual, Brock (with a lit cigarette) had very little expression. Jones was all grins of course. "Man!" he said. "They didn't even shoot back!" He saw Brian and nodded, but then stopped when he saw Alice. "Hey, I know you! It's Misses Captain Stryker!"

"Yikes, you need a shave" Alice said to Fence, "You left Pretoria to work on a mercenary ship ?"

Jones laughed and shrugged. "Well, you know. Civilian life. Merchant ship, technically." He winked.

"You know each other?" said Brian.

Fence explained about the Pretoria connection, and Brian said, "Ah, I see. Well considering I've had some dealing with your husband and the Pretoria, and I would like to get as far away from Angel as I can, sure. I'll take you to Earth. I have to warn you though, I tend to run into trouble a lot."

"I used to be a Marquis, I am used to trouble" Alice said, "One tiny ship versus the galaxy"

"Brock, did you get that docking clamp issue taken care of?" Brian asked.  
"Sure thing, Boss," the big man said. "We're ready to roll."

"Don't forget the groceries," mentioned Hans.  
"Oh yeah. You and Jones take care of that. Brock, get the ship ready." To Alice, Brian said, "We're ready when you are."

"I will go get my family" Alice said, heading to the elevators to where some civilians were hiding in the undeveloped part of the station.

"Man, why do I have to fetch the groceries?" complained Jones.  
"Because shut up. That's why," said Brian as he walked away.

2139 hours  
Michael ran up to her and gave Lina a hug. Then he hugged Angel, who was in shock. "Blah! What is it doing to me?"

Michael looked up at Angel. "I knew you two would save everyone! That was cool, when you flew up in the air! And then when you threw that Borg into the wall? That was so awesome too! They had like a dozen drones, but you took them all out. And then..."

As Michael continued to talk excitedly, Angel turned to Lina. "How do you get it to cease talking?"

Lina grinned and said, "You don't"

2144 hours  
After a 13 hour seize, the Borg stopped their attack on Deep Space 5, pulling ships instead to Risa.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 4 - Home World in flames  
July 15 - Earth

The massive photon missiles launched from Mars destroyed two Cubes, 1 Cube survived and pressed forward to Earth.

6400 drones beamed to the surface. The Borg seemed to have targeted Canary Wharf, Shanghai, New Mombasa and Carpentaria.

July 16  
Qo'noS  
The Klingons destroyed the Borg who landed on the home world. The Borg unable to establish a foot hold.

Klingon military Head Quarters was nuked from orbit to kill the Borg trying to take it over.

Vulcan  
380 GINN class ships was part of the massive fleet protecting Vulcan.

The Borg broke through the fleet and fired at the largest city on the planet.

Hunedoara was leveled. 9 Million lost their lives in a flash, at least 2 million non-Vulcans included.

Deep Space Two  
Space station DS 2 was being ripped apart battling the Borg. The fleet around the station was losing at least ten ships an hour. The defences were useless against the Borg assault.

Deep Space Two was cracked in two by another Borg torpedo.

The station was lost, the explosion damaged everything within 90 kilometers of the station.

Azure Nebula

A massive Borg Armada broke through the Federation, Romulan and Klingon blockade. 300 Cubes fanned out.

Admiral Rain Williams sent a fleet message "The Borg is searching for something"

Risa  
Risa was evacuated, mere hours before the Borg arrived in orbit.

The home world of the Risians was razed. The Paradise Planet of plenty was being destroyed. The planet had been so bombarded by plasma fire from the Cubes that the planet surface was nothing but infertile wasteland now. Cities had been leveled, vegetation boiled, and soil ravaged to a glass-like state.

Risa was dying, the atmosphere become toxic as the Borg wrecked the planet.

48 kilometers below the surface, the Borg found what they were looking for ...

July 22  
Romulan Star Empire  
The Romulans held their ground, fighting the Borg less than 3 lightyears from their home world. Their ships and heavily armored starbases and outposts battled the Borg to the stand still. Outpost 17 exploded as a senior officer activated the self destruct when Borg drones beamed on board.

Seven Gorn fleets warped in, to assist with the defense of Romulus.

July 23 - Earth  
Six Cubes orbited Earth, beaming down more drones. "New Borg City", the only Borg stronghold in North America was wiped out.

This was the first real victory. The Borg seem unstoppable, their numbers were too great to battle. Not only was the Borg tried to assimilate Earth, two Borg Cubes entered the atmosphere and started to generate methane. Earth was warming up, 4 degrees Celsius per day, ocean levels rose for the first time in nearly 400 years.

An Andorian Fleet was on its way to Earth, due to arrive in 9 hours.

Chapter 5 - No Surrender, No Retreat  
July 26. USS Pretoria - Sickbay  
Kyruzix was beamed to Sickbay after making a high speed combat landing. Hakuzax, Stryker and Consy was in Sickbay as well, being treated for asphyxiation and severe injuries after a Cube cut out a section of Deck 3. They were being watched over by Doctor M`Ress.

The ongoing stress of battle worn Stryker down. He was extremely tired. Hakuzax sat up on his bed, since the three officers were being held in Sickbay for Observation. The junior engineer looked at Stryker, "Sir. I have been meaning to ask you, why you laughed at the Ekosian Nazis when they were threatening you."

Stryker had to smirk ...

_6 weeks ago. Ekos, High Security Prison__  
The Prison's shield grid was up and protected by a pair of SAM sites. Stryker, Hakuzax and Kyruzix was captured by the SS, accused of spying._

The doctors and 3 interrogators was trying to get Stryker to talk. Stryker was in agony from the beating and the needles, and defiant. He laughed at them, the SS had no clue how to make the Edenian talk. They threatened to use a psychedelic drug and a poison on him after the truth serum failed. Again, Stryker laughed at them.

Stryker explained to Hakuzax, "Since my Guardian training started, my genes has been altered to resist poisons and drugs. Every 6 to 9 months, I undergo gene therapy to maintain my resistance. Pretoria's Senior Medical staff has been entrusted with Edenian created nanobots in case of an emergency. This near-perfect immunity is very useful when you are shot at almost every day, a relentless bastard people attempting to wipe out your people"

July 27

USS Pretoria - Bridge  
Captain Stryker was confused. 15 hours ago, an Ultra Secret order come for Pretoria to head to Deep Space India. No reason given why.

Once the ship arrived at India, Pretoria was ordered to escort the USS Premonition to the front lines. The Sovereign class's existence was kept under the highest security protocols.

Captain Miranda Keyes looked at her crew, "It's good to be back in action."

July 28  
USS Pretoria - Bridge

Stryker ordered 72 ships to coordinate weapons fire on a single Cube.

The Noctiluca Gun, a massive starship based weapon built by Klingon and Federation engineers, was getting ready. The Audacity's tractor beam was pulling the Noctiluca's giant focusing mirror. The fleet was told to shatter and fall back, as the massive beam weapons was a mere 12 seconds away from unleashing the most powerful beam ever fired, the giant phaser's output is 75 times more powerful than the massive armoured defences protecting the Klingon core worlds.

Six Cubes were ripped apart in under 18 seconds.

The Noctiluca Gun destroyed another 31 Cubes, a total of 37 Cubes were destroyed before the Borg managed to destroy the the Noctiluca.

"Fall back and regroup Sector G 91" Admiral Jim Attridge ordered the fleet. 

July 28  
1548 hours - **Intel Office **

With the aid of Admiral Janeway, Consy and Akuma now had clear blueprints of the inside of a Borg sphere and its weak points. Starfleet Intelligence had asked Consy to find a way to infiltrate the Borg and to destroy them from the inside. In theory by implanting some kind of virus imbedded within their subroutine.

Another faction of Starfleet had worked on the virus itself while Consy and Akuma had to determine how to set it loose. It was one of the many tactics Starfleet was trying. With the war still ongoing, Starfleet was getting desperate.

However since neither Consy nor Akuma trusted that to work, a secondary plan was devised. It consisted of sticking a transporter receiver on the interior wall of the Borg ship's engineering before returning and setting up a torpedo to explode after a given amount of time, and to teleport inside the Borg sphere. They were now in the final stages of these two plans.

Timing was essential. All of them knew that, every second they went undetected and un-attacked was valuable

Admiral Janeway, Consy and Akuma were looking at a 3d and rotating image of the sphere. Janweway tapped a few modifications onto the panel, and the image changed.

"This is the easiest place to transport in." Janeway said identifying an area in blue.

"How much time do you think we need to get in and then out from there?" Consy asked Akuma.

"From the looks of things, I would say no more than 60 minutes here and back." She was leaning towards the high end of her guess, for she knew that it wouldn't be wise to underestimate the Borg.

"When will they start seeing us as a threat?" Consy asked Janeway.

"They won't see you as a threat at first " Janeway reminded them as she leaned closer, looking at the floating image. "Not until you interfere."

"Hmm, " Consy said, "I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we could do it in half that time even if they don't react to us." Consy said. "What if we transported in here?"

"Impossible. That area is highly shielded and protected" Janeway said.

"The moment we touch one of their computers we are going to be setting off alarms anyway. So we need to clear our back up plan first before we can even connect with their computers. I want us as close as possible to engineering. "She said. "You're the infiltration specialist Lt Drax, find a way to get us in there unnoticed." Consy said and paused as she looked carefully at her, she looked tired. Between the red alerts and constants acts from them Borg, nobody was getting enough sleep. "That will be all for today, we reconvene tomorrow at holodeck 2 same hour. We can try the different access routes and run simulations" Consy said.

Consy watched Akuma nod in acknowledgement and Consy nodded back. Over their time together, Akuma had quickly learnt to understand Consy's signs. This slight nod was her silent dismissal. Consy turned off the image of the Borg ship and cleared the pads from their desk. She then looked towards Kathryn who hadn't left yet.

"The command track suits you Consy." Kathryn told Consy as she went to the replicator. She knew her daughter well and so ordered two cups of black coffee. She handed one of them to Consy. Since she had come aboard a week ago, she had observed Consy and had noted a few changes: physically she looked healthier, less stressed, even happier. It was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulder, even though they were in this Borg war. She couldn't quiet put her finger on why however. She was tempted to ask but knew Consy would tell her on her own time.

"Akuma and I make a good team for many reasons, not because of my command abilities" She smiled, but the smile hinted at a lot things, "We've worked in this close nit office from the start. She keeps me on my toes just like I asked her too but I also trust her implicitly with my life."

"Coming from you that says a lot." Janeway smiled in return. Consy wasn't the trusting type.

"She's warranted that trust." Consy said but she didn't say more and turned her attention to her console that now flashed with the latest intelligence report on the borg attacks.

July 29 - 1700 hours  
**The next day - Holodeck 2**

Consy was breathing hard, her chest heaving. She was covered in sweat and her hair was plastered onto her forehead. They had been running simulations of the Borg spheres for the past five hours. Consy's uniform was clinging to her skin,. She chose to remove the top of her uniform and remain in her Starfleet standard tanktop. The cool air felt good against the partially exposed skin, she was taking a breather. "On which route did we do best on?" She asked Akuma. She looked like she could use the break too.

Akuma raised an eyebrow at Consy taking her uniform off and shrugged. She looked at the different ways they had tried already and shook her head. "I don't think that the ways that we have tried will work, we should just go with the straight on approach."

"Alright then, a straight on approach it is." Consy decided.

Both knew all these simulations were necessary if there were to be ready for the mission. They now knew the safest and fastest route to take in theory. With that done, Consy decided to do something to unwind that was totally unexpected. She called a lock on the holodeck and called up a program of a beach waterfront. She then disregarded her uniform completely and plunged naked, head first into the cold ocean water.

Akuma smiled at the sight of a naked Consy, _thinking finally _and stripped out of her uniform, being totally used to being nude, and jumped in after her into the Ocean. Swimming up behind her and goosing her. "Nice look Consy."

Consy blushed slightly. The Borg war had precipitated things in her mind. The constant threat to herself and Akuma had made Consy realize that she needed to enjoy life and its pleasures. Consy could no longer deny her attraction and feelings for Akuma. She realised that even more so now that they were about to go on a mission that Consy was not expecting to return from. She had come to a decision of late and was now giving in to Akuma. Consy turned and planted a passionate kiss on Akuma's lips.

Akuma kissed her back, knowing that this might be the last time that they would be able to be like this, close and intimate, with the war with the Borg, she knew that they had a 1 in a million chance, and thought that they should live their life to the fullest.

Consy melted into the kiss, her legs getting weak. She had difficulty staying afloat in the water, even if she was an excellent swimmer so she purposefully leaned more into Akuma, their naked bodies were pressed against each other. The passion was obviously strong in both of them. Consy looked innocently at Akuma as they parted, her eyes filled with desire.

Akuma looked at her through hooded eyes and a smile. She went in and kissed Consy again, picking her up and taking them out of the ocean, and onto the beach. "Computer, betazed bungalow please." The ocean disappeared, and they appeared in a beautifully decorated Bedroom, with a huge bed, and the sounds of the ocean coming through the open window. "I thought this might be more comfortable instead of the sand." She laid Consy down on the bed and started kissing her way down that hot body.

"hmmm" Consy said and half nodded under Akuma's careful ministrations. She let her fingers glide through Akuma's fine silky hair. "You're such a tease... ohhh" She moaned excitedly.

Akuma had to smirk at that and gave Consy a nip on her inner thighs. Consy moaned to encourage her further, her still wet hands slowly caressing Akuma's bare shoulder. Her head fell back against the pillows, her lips parted, and her breathing increased. She shivered with expectations

Akuma scooted into position to start tickling her with her started to giggle. Akuma decided to kiss her and did. Consy let her tongue glide into Akuma's mouth as her own hands did an exploration of their own.

Akuma let out a moan and let her own fingers do the walking. Consy's left a trail of wet kisses down her neck, she nipped Akuma's collarbone, her hands coming close to the tender areas but never quite touching. Akuma let out another moan, she was in heat and Consy was driving her wild. Consy smiled, "More?" She asked, her own voice full of passion.

"Please"

Consy hands gently took hold of Akuma's breast, caressing them as she kissed her way down. She lifted a hand to blow some hot air on it, teasing, licking her own lips. She did this before finally taking it into her mouth. She rolled the nipple between her teeth and tongue, lapping, licking, sucking. Akuma was purring now. Consy replaced her mouth with her hand and did the same to the other one. Her other hand was working slowly around Akuma's navel. "You're so beautiful." She whispered in between licks. Consy might not have known it at this time, but she was playing Akuma like a fiddle now

Consy then trailed wet kisses down to Akuma's navel, gently kissing where the symbiont was. Akuma was purring louder, and Consy could hear humming. Consy gently lowered herself, placing her head between Akuma's hot thighs, she took the same approach as before, urged on by Akuma's purrs

Akuma let out another loud moan, and Consy could tell by the liquid output that Akuma was close. Consy increased in intensity, giving it her all. Akuma let out a loud scream as she came over Consy's face, screaming out. "Oh Kathryn Janweay." as she passed out from exhaustion with a smile

Consy was shocked at being called by another person's name, and even more so that it was her mother's. She moved away rapidly, as anger started to fill her. She had been taken for a fool... she didn't even bother to clean herself off before leaving the bungalow. Tears streamed down her face. She could barely see, and had trouble locating her uniform. In the end, she didn't bother and triggered a site to site transport directly to her quarters.

Akuma woke up a while later, wondering where Consy was "Computer where is Commander Consy."

"Commander Consy is in her quarters." Was the computers automated reply.

Once Akuma realized what had happened, she went and got dressed. She noticed the other uniform and picked up Consy's uniform and commbadge. She hit her own badge. =/\= Lt Drax to Admiral Janeway, can you please meet me at Consy's quarters ma'am, there is something that I said that involves the three of us, and we need to talk. =/\=

Janeway tapped her own badge, =/\= Certainly. =/\= she lowered the book she was reading.

Akuma waited for the Admiral at Consy's door, before ringing the chime

Janeway arrived shortly after, she noticed the extra uniform Akuma was carrying, but chose not to ask. She knew the information would be forthcoming. Consy heard the chime on her door but she ignored it. She didn't want to see anyone at the moment, nor did she want to talk. She didn't want to listen either, she shut her eyes, pushing the insisting sound out of her mind.

Akuma looked at her with a smile. "Hello Admiral, thank you for coming so quickly, this is a sticky situation that something came out of my mouth in the heat of the moment that shouldn't have, and I think she was affronted."

Janeway looked on, a bit confused, "How can I help?"

"Well you see I called out your name" She looked a bit embarrassed at that

Janeway was going to ask when but understood, "Should I be flattered?" Janeway asked in a playful teasing manner sensing how uncomfortable Akuma was. She was trying to buy some time, trying to make sense of what appeared a very complicated matter.

"I know you probably don't remember this, but it happened when you were still a young captain, do you remember a young Marine that you hit it off with?" She was being playful now also.

Janeway nodded remembering, "A lot has happened since then." She paused understanding, ringing the chime.

In those few hours, Consy had succeeded to calm her anger somewhat however she did not want to talk. She had showered for a long time, feeling dirty. Now she sat in causal clothes with her knees folded up under her as she stared into the darkness of space, tears still sliding down. The lights in her quarters were completely off, she shrugged off the first ring of the chime. She ignored it the second and third time. The fourth time she told them to go away.

"Yes Kate a lot has happened since then. As you can see I grew breasts." Drax came out at that time with his usual candid nature and a laugh. "Good to see you and that the years have been good to you." He had always liked the young Captain that showed a young Marine that it was ok to have a heart from time to time. "As to what had happened, I have grown to have feelings for Consy, and well it is complicated being in a female body at this time."

Kathryn put a hand out to stop Akuma, "There is no need to go into the private details." She pressed the chime again.

"Well this was the first time with a woman in a woman body for me, and well I called out the name of the most important person of my past lives instead of the current one, as you can see it is a bit complicated, and it looks like Consy isn't going to listen." Akuma looked a bit worried at that, knowing that this was bad.

Janeway could tell it was very important for Akuma to see Consy, so she pressed the chime again.

"Go away." Consy finally called out, it sounded a bit bitter.

"You really want to talk to her now?" Janeway asked. Akuma nodded. Janeway then entered what she knew would be Consy's personal code . The door slid open, she entered."Computer increase lights gradually to 50%." Janeway asked. .

Consy sighed, "It had better be life threatening..." she hissed. She wiped the tears from her eyes and then blinked as the light increased, slowly getting adjusted. Only her mother knew her code...

Akuma went over to Consy, kneeling in front of her. Taking her hand she looked up into the tear streaked face, and it was breaking her heart. "Consy, please listen to me on this. It isn't your fault, and I wasn't leading you on for anything, you have to understand something about one of Drax's past lives."

She took a deep breath and let it out again. "It was a long time ago, he was a young Marine assigned to the ship that Kathryn was the new Captain on, and he was one of those hard assed Marines, because he thought that was what he was supposed to be.

He didn't know any better, and he was just scared on the inside.

He met the young Captain one day, and had had a bad day, but instead of chewing him out for the breech of protocol of yelling at the Captain, she saw that he was just a scared young man, just like the others.

Well they got to talking, and they had hit it off, first as friends, then as more as they got to know each other.

She has been one of the most important people in his life, in all his incarnations, and well you were my first time with a woman in a woman's body, and instead of doing the right thing and calling out the name of the most important person in Akuma's life, I called out the most important person in Drax's former lives. Can you forgive me my love?" She looked up into the tear streaked eyes, and let her answer, willing to take it, whatever it was.

Consy looked away at first distrustfully. She had listened. Her eyes flicked towards Kathryn who nodded to confirm the story. Consy's gaze traveled between the two for a few seconds until they came to a stop on Akuma. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not trusting herself. [i] Forgive, certainly, forget no. [/i] The emotional washout was too strong to be forgotten, she closed her eyes a second or two. The door swooshed open and closed, Consy guessed Kathryn had left leaving them their privacy. She nodded slightly, "Forgiven" Consy finally said weakly.

Akuma took her into her arms and started rocking her. "I know that it will take me a long time to make it up to you, and I will do everything and anything that it takes, I can imagine what you thought, and it is something that was wrong for me to do and thank you for forgiving me." She kissed her lightly on the forehead, and feeling that she was emotionally wrecked right now, got up and picked her up, carrying her to her bed and laying her down on it so she could sleep if she wanted. "Rest my love, it will help. Don't worry, I won't leave if you don't want me to." She smiled at her with love in her eyes. She helped Consy out of her clothes so that she could rest better, and held her close. .

Consy smiled back and was curled up in the warm embrace. It didn't take long before she was fast asleep. She woke nearly an hour later in a sweat; she had had another round of nightmares.

Akuma was breathing deeply, seemingly sound asleep next to her. Consy smiled looking at her. She slid out of Akuma's embrace and out of bed carefully. She went to the washroom and ran some cold water, she let it fill the basin before spreading it all over her face. When Consy straightened, Akuma was standing behind her "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." She said gently.

"Don't worry about it. You want some help relaxing?" She wrapped her arms around Consy, keeping her hands on her belly, for now, slowly kissing her neck. "I think that you deserve something yourself, you took care of me, now it's my turn to take care of your needs." With that, her hands went up to Cony's breasts, massaging and lightly pinching her nipples. Consy could tell that Akuma was nude also in the mirror.

"You weren't really asleep were you?" Consy winked to Akuma in the mirror as she angled her head to led Akuma to the sensitive spots along her neck. Her lips parted and soft moans escaped.

"You know me too well," she nipped her neck a bit

Consy smiled, "It would seems we're on even grounds..." She said with interrupted groans.

Akuma smiled and ran her hands down Consy's belly, tickling a bit, running down into her pubic hair. Consy giggled, she was very ticklish.

"Oh so your ticklish huh Commander Coffee." She slide her hands down further, going for the nether regions, trying to get Consy all worked up with just her finger, while also nibbling and sucking on her pulse point

Consy froze, being called by her rank made her uncomfortable and reminded her of the difficulties entitled in this relationship. She moved out of the embrace and turned to face Akuma dead serious and filled with uncertainties, "We are equals... I don't want you to be having this relationship because of my rank. "

Akuma looked at her and started giggling. "I meant nothing about rank or anything Consy, that was meant as a loving tease not with rank, I won't do it anymore if it bothers you so much."

Consy sighed, [i] why was she getting worked up so easily she wondered, [/i] "I was never good at being teased...Sorry..." She took a deep breath.

"No worries Consy, I promise I won't do it again." She took advantage of being in this position and leaned in and kissed her.

"Why is it we always seem to be apologizing to each other?" Consy asked.

Akuma shrugged and giggled. "Well there is always the make up sex." She had lust in her eyes as she eyed Consy's body.

Consy grinned reading the lust, she leaned in and returned Akuma's kiss.

Akuma wrapped her arms around Consy's body, pressing them together, and placed her hand under her ass, lifting her up and onto the counter, continuing with the kissing

Consy let herself relax. She lifted a hand to caress Akuma's face as they kissed. Affectionately her thumb moved across her cheek.

Akuma broke off the kiss and looked her in the eyes. "Just relax and enjoy yourself Consy." With that, she started kissing her way down Consy's body, paying a lot of attention to her breast first.

Consy closed her eyes and threw her head back to relax. She took pleasure in Akuma's skilful hands and kisses, moaning ever so often with excitement. Akuma spent a good twenty minutes on each of Consy's breasts, licking, suckling, nipping at each of the nipples while playing with the other one with her hand. She was enjoying this, and having fun. So was Consy as the pleasure started to fill her. Her flesh was getting hot and her thighs wet.

As she got done pleasuring Consy's beautiful breasts, Akuma started working her way down her belly, starting at the valley of her breasts, with feather light kisses, down to her belly button, licking around it for a while also. Consy giggled as the kisses tickled, her body whimpered for more.

Akuma smiled to herself, and worked her way down between her thighs, spreading her legs as she kneeled placing Consy's legs on her shoulders and kissed each thigh, kissing the scars, not caring about them, they didn't matter to her on how she felt

Consy's eyes opened to look at Akuma as she took notice of the old scars... In the heat of the moment, Consy had forgotten about them. She suddenly grew a bit shy but that was suddenly overcome with what Akuma did next.

Akuma took and started licking up all the juices that seemed to gather with a smile. "You are as sweet as Coffee flavoured sugar love." She wiggled her tongue along the lower lips, flicking it across her clit also.

Consy whimpered, moving her hips against Akuma's face. "Akuma" Consy half moaned as she thrashed around, trying to move in harmony to Akuma's mouth. It didn't take long before she came hard.

Akuma took and did as her mother always told her, cleaned her plate with pleasure. She then worked her way back up the delicious body, kissing Consy deeply and passionately

"Mmmmm" Consy said as she came off her high. " Thanks..."

"You're quite welcome, it was my pleasure." She smiled and giggled. She lifted Consy up into her arms and took her back to bed, where it was more comfortable. Consy smiled, and pulled the fluffy white feather covering over them. Sleep would be easy now. Akuma wrapped her arms around Consy as they fell asleep.

August 1 - Borg D-Day  
**USS Pretoria - Bridge**

Consy and Akuma had trained many times to infiltrate a Borg Sphere, they were as ready as could be. Pretoria was following the trace of such a sphere. Fortunately it was partially damaged and had moved away from the war zone. It meant they could get on it fairly easily and they could safely assume no Starfleet ships would fire on it.

Akuma looked at Consy and nodded. "We're as ready as we ever will be. Let's take our chances. Let's get this done and get back so that we can celebrate at least once." She smiled softly as they kitted up for the mission.

Consy raised a curious brow at that statement; she was tempted to reply something, her mind floating a few dirty thoughts on the matter but withheld them as they were on the bridge and war.

"Agreed. We depart in 10 minutes, meet me in shuttlebay 2." Consy left the bridge to go her quarters, to get geared up for the mission. She removed her uniform and folded it ever so carefully on her bed. She had been keeping her quarters really clean and tidy since the beginning of the Borg war, she wasn't expecting to survive; ever the pessimist. She put on her black infiltration outfit.

She had difficulty zipping it up, her hands shook. She had never felt this nervous before. She tried to drink some coffee to calm her nerves, but even the mug trembled in her hands. She took a deep breath from the roses bushes. _Grandma Gretchen was right, essence of a rose always did it. Consy smiled remembering the first time Gretchen had made her smell that. The memory seemed so far away and distant now. _

Consy closed her eyes and was able to completely get over her anxiety at the upcoming mission. She then drowned her coffee, took her utility back, zipped the outfit and stepped out the door.

Consy was surprised to see that the ship's officers had lined up in the hallway to bid her and Akuma good luck. Many applauded their courage and wished them good hunting. As she entered shuttlebay two, Akuma was there already, as were the rest of the senior staff of the ship. Every single one of them took her hand and wished her good luck. Consy finished with the Captain.

"It's been an honour serving with you Captain." Consy said before he could even start. She already had tears glistening in her eyes. It was such a beautiful sign of respect coming from the crew.

Stryker looked at her, " Don't do anything rash." He warned.

Consy had a slight smile: "You know me."

He sighed, "Yes." He looked thoughtful for a minute. "This is no time to be a super hero." He said. "Come back alive. THAT'S AN ORDER." He told her and Akuma.

Consy smiled. "I'll do my best sir."

"You're very damned best, your best is not good enough." He winked.

She smiled and then stepped into the shuttle, Akuma followed immediately after. The flight systems checks were done very rapidly, and soon they were soon on their way to the Borg sphere.

"ETA to Borg Sphere?" Consy asked Akuma once they had departed from the Pretoria.

Akuma looked at Consy and nodded. "20 minutes Consy. Let's kick some Borg butt."

"Indeed." Consy leaned in for a quick kiss her eyes hinting at something else. 

Akuma leaned in and kissed her also, running a hand along Consy's thigh showing that she knew exactly what Consy was thinking

"First sex, make up sex, we think we're going to die sex?" Consy teased moving her hands across Akuma to slowly remove her clothing.

"Well then we got to remember the Celebration sex" Akuma said with a smile.

"Unhmmm..." Consy said as she started to kiss Akuma's bare shoulder as she continued to slowly remove Akuma's clothing.

Akuma giggled as she let Consy have her wicked ways with her. Consy smiled, she found Akuma so beautiful when she laughed. She wrapped her arms around her naked form, pulling her close. Akuma wraps her arms around Consy waist grabbing her bum as she enjoyed the feeling of freedom. "You have the sexiest ass that I've ever seen Consy."

Consy smiled kissing down the trill spots,

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that is one of my most sensual spots." Consy winked and continued teasing Akuma. Akuma threw her head back in a light moan and purr

"hmmm." Consy let her fingers trace down the spots up and down the spots as she continued kissing. Consy let her fingers slowly massage Akuma, playing with the soft skin of her thighs. Akuma opened her thighs for Consy, leaking some of her sweet juices on her hands Consy gently rubbed and caressed, attacking the area with her fingers as her mouth continued to leave hot kisses. Akuma was close, oh so close, if Consy kept up with her ministrations, she would go over the top in a few seconds

"That feels so good!" Akuma moaned, she was running her hands through Consy's hair.

Consy pressed on, applying more pressure on the tiny nub as she increased in intensity, adjusting to the moans and movements of Akuma. That did it, and Consy was suddenly flooded with the sweet love juices of Akuma as she screamed out Consy's name this time:

Consy kissed Akuma before using her tongue to clean up the job, making the pleasure last longer. Akuma let out a long moan and smiled down at Consy. "I will return the favor on the way back Consy."

Consy winked, "I'm not keeping tabs..." The computer beeped announcing that they were close to arriving at their intended target.

"Well that's our cue, we might want to get dressed, even though I don't mind, and it might distract the Borg enough." She giggled

Consy giggled too, the idea of distracting the Borg by being naked seemed ludicrous. After she recovered from the image, "It will most likely distract me more than them." She playfully teased a nipple.

"Me too." She kissed her again, giving her a squeeze, before getting dressed again."

They snuck up on the Borg ship and were able to transport in undetected. They had just boarded the sphere and were ready to start . " You heard the Captain, he wants us to return alive, take no unnecessary risks." Consy said. "Let's get this mess started." Consy let Akuma take the lead.

Akuma just nodded as she took out a phaser, and looked around. "Well we're in the right spot, we should go this way, like we had planned, looks like they haven't detected us yet." She looked out of the room, and saw that the way was clear, so she held up her hand to Consy, showing the all clear sign and made her way to the other side of the hall to cover Consy's move.

Consy followed Akuma in, so far the ship was exactly as the blueprints had said it would be. Consy was watching their backs while they moved towards the engineering section. Setting up a temporary transporter beacon hidden in plain sight would not be that easy, they both knew that. It was risky business, but just being in the Borg sphere was risky. Consy instinctively gasped when she saw a Borg round a corner, it was coming towards them. Consy swore, her stress levels going up, however the drone passed right between them, never paying them any notice.

"Okay that was close." Consy said. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"This is what the people in the need to know circle told me about the virus, it's simple. You take and introduce it, and it will set up a field that will shut them off from the collective completely, then slowly work on a reverse assimilation of the drones. Thing is, we will be running for our lives once they figure out what we're doing." She was completely honest and serious with Consy on this

Consy had added a command subroutine into it that made the Borg see any human as capable of repairing them and not as a threat, that was it if worked. It would in theory accept new orders from humans. But that was just a hypothesis. "I know, I got the same report... I added a command subroutine to it, upon their request. In theory a defective Borg will see a human as capable of repairing it and not as a threat. But that is just a theory." Consy said.

Akuma nodded. "Still I don't want to risk it So once we accomplish we here to do, we need to get out, which means, we use the computer closest to our shuttle

"Agreed, you take care of plan b, I'll get plan A."  
"Agreed, the transporter lock is almost ready for when we get out of here to send the Borg off with a bang

Consy kissed Akuma, Akuma kissed her back. "We're going to get back love"

Consy wasn't so sure about that, "Give me ten minutes." She then ran off towards the regenerations chamber. If Consy wasn't back in ten minutes, Akuma had orders to flee.

Akuma wasn't going to follow those orders exactly if she wasn't back in 10 minutes. She would claim hormones at her court marshal, but she believed in the Marine way of things, at least Drax did, never leave anyone behind. Akuma went to where the shuttle was once her job was done, and waited the rest of the time. The longest 5 minutes of her life

Consy was a bit spooked as she looked at the numerous Borgs in their alcoves. She found an empty one. She then took out her gear and connected to the hive mind. Getting in was the easy part, making sure they didn't attack her was another. She stepped in the alcove, it creped her out, but it was the only sure way to see them coming. She then concentrated on downloading all the information on the subsystems she needed as she cracked into subsystems. As she did, alarms went off all over the ship. They had finally detected her. She battled with the security subroutines, as the Borg around her activated. She inserted the virus just in time. The command line seemed severed, and the waking Borg stopped their advanced on her. Consy didn't take the chance to double check at their hesitation, she ran like hell towards the shuttle. Their task was done, would it work? There was no sure way of knowing.

Akuma looked at Consy as she ran up, with less than a minute to spare, "Let's get the hell out of here"

"Indeed, "was Consy quick reply as she took seat in shuttle.

However flying the shuttle away from the Borg sphere proved a lot harder than getting close to it. They sphere had repaired its sensors and tracking systems, the non-affected drones attempted to capture the shuttle with a tractor beam. When that didn't work because Consy sent a feedback loop that destroyed the beacon, the drones started to fire on the shuttle.

"Bloody hell, looks like we're going to have to give them our little friend. Akuma activated the transporter and sent the torpedo over and set it off.

"Imminent shield and life support failure." The computer said. Both knew once the torpedo exploded, the shuttle wouldn't resist the shockwave of the Borg core breach.

"Get us within transport range of Pretoria..."Consy shouted over the computer's voice reporting the systems failure. The shuttles life support system was starting to fail, as were the shields. "Hail Pretoria to intercept us."

"Shuttle to Pretoria, we need emergency transport off the shuttle, we're being fired on." The transporter beam engulfed them as the shuttle blew apart. They had made it out, in the nick of time.

1427 hours  
USS Pretoria - Sickbay

Stryker walked into Sickbay. He has been miserable and tired. Stryker comes looking for something to help him sleep.

_I need Alice to scratch my back, much better than taking injections just to sleep._

The separation from Alice, Ael and Olivia was wearing Stryker down.

1622 hours  
Pretoria was docked at Starbase 99 for emergency repairs.

1948 hours  
The crew was tired and stressed out. The crew had blankets and pillows near their work stations, to lay down when Red Alert was canceled. The crew was hungry, the Borg attempted to access the computer cores and bring down the shields. Consy's encryption program beat the Borg, and redirected the cyber intruders to the replicators.

Now the only food and drink the replicators dispense is Bolian Slug Pie and Ferengi tea.

Today's battle went well, the Allied Fleet along with Jade's ships now numbered into 4700 ships. The Borg fielded 512 ships when this battle started. The Allied Fleet lost half of the ships while the Borg was down to 44 Cubes. The Allied Fleet kept throwing surprises at the Borg, new weapons and irregular warfare, even throwing the kitchen sink at the Borg ...

The Klingons figured out how to duplicate the Tholian Web: a self-propelling and self-sustaining energy of web that surrounds a Cube and prevents it from moving and disrupts shields.

The Klingons' Plasma lance weapon also worked well against the Borg. The Orions created a starship mounted I MOD, the Federation fielded the Gravitic Pulse Enhanced Plasma Torpedo for the first time. The Romulans had a new type of torpedo, nicknamed Razor torpedoes by the Starfleet crew observing these deadly torpedoes slipping through shields and causing severe damage with any single hit. The Romulans also had several ships capable of emitting Thalaron radiation, these Thalaron ships was used many times in the last few years against the Archons.

The Alliance managed 7 times now to create a disruptor field large enough to encompass a Cube and cut the Borg from the Collective. The confused Cube, cut off and alone is then easily destroyed. With this idea in mind, Starfleet Command prepares a virus intended to separate the Borg from the collective. A virus which Consy and Akuma are asked to deliver by infiltration a Borg sphere. Janeway comes aboard Pretoria to give Consy and Akuma the virus as well as intel on the Sphere.

2027 hours  
The Borg was attacking the computer systems of the Alliance fleet.

Hostile code attempted to break out of the sandbox environment and security measures. Kyruzix's tactical console was affected, Borg letters ran over his screens.

2100 hours  
Pretoria along with 7 other ships was holding back 33 Borg Cubes. Transphasic torpedoes blew the Cubes away with great ease.

Pretoria was the closest to a strange looking Borg Sphere. The hull of the Sphere was Golden, likely an assimilated ship of some kind.

Consy was at the tactical console, she permanently tried to get Kyruzix's console to work, instead of the Borg cube shutting it down again. The strange Sphere fired at Pretoria, the shields were barely holding at 25%

Belldandy was watching a view screen. Kyruzix was looking on from behind her. "One more hit and we will lose shields" Kyruzix announced.

"Come with me." Consy ordered Kyruzix.

"I'm coming with you." Liz said.

"Captain! The Sphere is ready to fire again" Belldandy announced. Consy, Kyruzix and Liz left the Bridge, heading to Shuttle Bay 1.

Stryker was stressed, "Get ready. Are the shields up again ?"

"Ah- eh, I'm not sure."

Stryker and Alister were shocked, "What ?"

"Well... it's Consy's code. Her algorithms are way beyond anything I've seen ! I do not recognize the language" Belldandy said.

Akuma pushed Belldandy out of the way, "Excuse me !" The Betazoid-Trill began typing frantically, "Oh, dear. Ohh, dear. Oh oh, dear !"

Consy's code was a Borg one. With the information she had brought back from the virus implantation, she tried fooling them. The code could not be cracked, however the Borg were confused by it once they received it. They did not fire. In fact, they even mistook the Pretoria as fully assimilated, the golden sphere faltered only long enough to give Stryker his edge.

2219 hours  
The Chameleon CC shuttle was hit, separated from Pretoria as space lit up again with flashes of light. The shuttle had to hide for a while to affect repairs. Consy had been given another mission, to bring a living Borg back. Consy did not want to put anyone else's life at risk this time, so she had chosen to go alone.

The CC shuttle found a small ship adrift. It appeared to be one of Angel's.

Consy had a hard time walking around in the dark corridors. Her hand triggered something ...

[ Reactivation in progress ]  
[C6754 SYSTEM ONLINE / REBOOTING ... INIT 1]  
[ DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE ]  
[ INTERNAL DAMAGE: MINOR / EXTERNAL DAMAGE: MINOR ]  
[ INITIATE INTERNAL REPAIRS ]  
[ WARNING / INTERNAL REPAIR FAILURE ]

[ Memory Module: NOT PROGRAMMED. ]  
[ ONE HUMANOID LIFEFORM DETECTED ]  
[ HUMANOID LIFEFORM SCAN. FEMALE HUMAN-VULCAN HYDRID / HEIGHT: 1.27 METERS / 35 KILOGRAMS ]  
[ WEAPON SCAN: ONE PHASER FOUND / WEAPON THREAT LEVEL: LOW ]  
[ ORDERS ... NOT FOUND / DAMAGE REQUIRES REPAIRS.  
HUMANOID LIFEFORM: CAPABLE OF REPAIR AND REORGANIZATION.  
SUBORDINATE UNIT C6754 TO HUMANOID LIFEFORM]

"I am ready to receive orders," said the Command Droid to Consy, and then he stood up.

2353 hours  
Consy brought the C Droid back to Pretoria to examine it closer, her mission a success. It had worked because of the virus Starfleet had created. She had added a command subroutine into it that made the Borg see any human as capable of repairing them and not as a threat. It would in theory accept new orders.

Upon her return, Consy meet up with Akuma, they shared a few more intimate moments; celebrating that they were still alive thus far.

Chapter 6 - Point of No Return  
August 2  
0330 hours  
The Pretoria had a tractor beam on the Enterprise after the Sovereign class ship lost impulse engines. Starfox was launched to protect life pods ejected from the Thunder Child. Pretoria rescued the life pods from the Romulan Flagship, Bird of Paradise.

Sector G 91 was being held as long as the Borg was unable to destroy Jade's two ships called Archangel and Dominion.

Pretoria was waiting at Starbase 133 for the "Tannhäuser" positron beam cannon to be loaded on to a transport before escorting it to Sector G 91, to help reinforce Jade's defenses.

A Borg Sphere attacked. 12 Borg Drones beamed on to the Pretoria. Gadget's armed hologram characters attacked the drones, destroyed them after a quick fight.

1540 hours  
"Main power is fluctuating!" Lt. Liz Archer reported from her security station, "We need to reduce power output"

"Disable life Support in all cargo bays and Dot's Diner" Alister ordered.

"Incoming Torpedoes !" Kyruzix announced.

Stryker found himself holding his breath, "Left Roll 20 degrees, Pitch Angle up 60 degrees. Auxiliary power to Impulse engines"

1558 hours  
The Tannhäuser cannon was destroyed by the Borg fleet just as it was powering up for its first shot. Morale took a massive beating as the cannon blew up.

Pretoria now had on board the survivors from 4 ships - Thunder Child, Rothelakaq, Cimkol Ngis Adlhok and Minerva, the ship was getting very crowded.

The hologram program went down after a drone blew a hole in Deck 33. Jade's troops beamed on board Pretoria as 48 Borg Drones were attacking Main Engineering.

USS Lakota was disabled, Borg drones beamed on board and assimilated some of the crew and took over the entire ship.

1629 hours  
The ship shook as a torpedo hit the Pretoria. Gadgets was beamed to Sickbay as an emergency force field collapsed, almost sucking him into the vacuum of space.

"Unconscious patient. Asphyxia and hypothermia" a nurse checked the biobed where he rematerialized. Nurse Rei Soryu announced to Doctor Cleap as she scanned him with a tricorder, "Triage Priority One"

Gadgets was moved quickly, treatment began immediately.

1645 hours  
Kyruzix and 82 other shuttles were laying mines around a transwarp entrance, since no one has been able to close the entrance. The Commanding officer of Fleet 25 reported that the Borg can now shield themselves from transphasic torpedoes.

"Shit" Stryker commented.

1701 hours  
Pretoria was taking a severe beating.

In the engine room, a scene of chaos. "EVERYONE OUT !" the Pretoria's Chief Engineer yelled.

81 engineers fled the Engine Room as double blast doors were coming down.

Warp Core 2 was breaching, in less than 60 seconds, an implosion would destroy the Pretoria. Lt.-Cmdr. Matthew Eli Scott was standing next to Core 2. The automatic ejection system failed. Scott ran to the manual explosive bolts. Core 2 was ejected with 20 seconds to spare. Scott was killed by a secondary explosion. His heroics were seen by the Bridge crew on the view screen.

Stryker was greatly saddened at losing another officer.

Pretoria only had one warp core left, acceleration was reduced as was power generation.

2112 hours  
Pretoria and four Sovereign class star ships were firing at the three Borg Cubes, Lao Hu was coming in for an emergency combat landing.

"Lower shields" Alister ordered, to enable Lao Hu to land.

"This is going to hurt" Stryker commented.

2249 hours  
Pretoria was firing at Borg torpedoes, clearing a way for Kyruzix as he piloted the Starfox.

Starfox was going to act as a bridge, to enable the doomed crew to beam to the Pretoria. The Mizajinian Ant ship was so badly damaged, the hull was twisted, escape pods could not be launched.

A Mizajinian Ant battleship, Core Splendor blew up as the warp core breached two minutes earlier than was estimated. Samantha Maxwell arrived 30 seconds later, to tractor in the disabled Starfox.

August 3  
0025 hours - Assimilated USS Lakota (Akira class)  
"Tank Girl Squad is pinned down on Deck 9" Belldandy reported.

Stryker and Kyruzix battled the Borg in the Lakota's Engine Room. His phaser was on the floor, Stryker had to think quickly. He pushed a Drone into an open EPS relay, electrocuting the former Hermat captain of this ship. "I am sorry" he told the Drone, a matter of respect to other Starfleet captain, even though there is only 1 Borg left in _here_ now.

0310 hours - USS Pretoria  
Stryker tasted blood in his mouth. Low visibly due to smoke on the bridge. He looked at a woman's body on the floor of the Bridge. The relief Helmsman had pointed ears, purple-black hair, icy blue eyes. A jagged compound fracture, jutting her eye, blood-red sclera, purple and sunken. Her scraped-raw hand clawing at air.

Gadgets's automated transporter program activated as the roof of the bridge was ripped apart by a Borg energy weapon, beaming the bridge crew to Sickbay.

0343 hours - USS Pretoria  
"Captain's log, Supplemental: The hull of my ship is burned. Half of the interior of my ship is wrecked, ripped away and burned. Akuma and myself almost got killed by a fire ball this morning. Doctor Cleap cannot explain why I am keep smelling burning carpet, randomly throughout the day.

Nearly the entire crew has some injury. 36 of my crew is dead. A total of 180 bodies of Starfleet officers are on my ship, officers from other ships."

0408 hours - USS Pretoria  
Battle Bridge  
Sector G 91 was lost to the Borg, the shattered fleet of 363 ships was losing to the Borg - each time they tried to regroup, 4 or 5 Cubes would show up in the middle of their staging area.

Pretoria was battling two Cubes alone. The left warp nacelle was destroyed. The Main Bridge was destroyed plus Decks 2, 3, 4 and 5 had many major hull breaches and were evacuated. Shields were weakened, Pretoria only had 36 torpedoes left, and only the rear torpedo launchers were still functional.

The floor shook violently. "What was that ?" Alister asked. The shields flashed, some kind of green energy was covering the shields.

Belldandy's bleeding arm was being looked at by Doctor Cleap, Belldandy continued to man her station, "Some kind of new Borg weapon. Shields will be down in about 20 seconds, with this kind of energy input the shield generators will be destroyed."

"The only way we are going to survive this, is to take over a Cube, fight the Borg with their own weaponry" Alister suggested.

"Launch the Chimeras" Stryker ordered. "Kyruzix, evasive manoeuvres."

3 Chimeras class shuttles launched, Jin, Tepoztecal and Brandilyn. Being piloted by a non-humanoid, the heavily armored and seriously overpowered Chimeras dodged anything shot at them with ease. The Borg tried their hardest to stop the troublesome shuttles, they succeeded. Tepoztecal was hit, its pilot ejected. The Horta was beamed to the Jin.

After dodging Borg weapons fire for nearly 4 minutes, the Chimeras found weaknesses in the Borg Cube's shields and attached themselves to the hull. The four Hortas went on to cause severe internal damage to the Cube. The oldest Horta got hold of the Borg transporter, and beamed Security officers to the Cube. Lt. Wiamua then beamed Borg into the transporter buffer, then deleted the buffer, killing the Borg.

Akuma, Gadget and Consy were part of the team that was transported over. As soon as they stepped onto the ship, they worked to get Kyruzix's plan into action. They infiltrated the Borg systems, hacked the computer core and engineered consoles that they could use.

1744 hours  
The Pretoria's "Borg Cube" arrived at Starbase 201. The Cube had a tractor beam on Pretoria. The Pretoria was severely mangled: the left warp nacelle was destroyed, a massive hole where Shuttle Bay 2 is supposed to be, and hull breaches on 17 decks, Power was down, as was Life Support. The entire crew has set up shop on the Cube, sleeping was very difficult. The crew was eating emergency rations.

On the Cube, Stryker was badly injured. The Borg tried to assimilate him, the quick thinking of Nurse Asuka and Hakuzax saved Stryker. The Collective never got access to Stryker's memories and knowledge of both Starfleet, Edenian Federation of Worlds and some Mizajinian Ant command codes he and Kyruzix has been entrusted to in recent weeks.

Being aboard the cube made everyone unease, Consy was particularly edgy. All her previous times aboard Borg ships had been life threatening. She was even more so, knowing what had happened to the Captain. She fortunately had had the chance to have some personal items transported over. She moved to a more private area, She was attempting to contact her animal guide and to calm herself.

Chapter 7 - The Hour of the Wolf

Fleet Wide Subspace Message (Origin: Earth - Montreal, Canada)  
2110 hours  
"This is Captain Natalie McKenzie Cooper, Commanding Officer Bravo Company, 102nd Force Action Battalion, 603rd Special Infantry Regiment; to every ship on the front lines against the Borg. Earth is free, all the Borg on this planet has been killed. The fight is defeat them is now up to you. Finish the fight. Earth, out."

2350 hours  
"Captain's Log, Supplemental: The Pretoria's repair is estimated at 9 to 12 months. The Borg hit us hard, but we hit back every single time. My crew is tired. We have been given 22 days to recuperate. I talked to my crew, all of them wants to get back to space."

August 8  
"After Action Report, Captain Rakurai Stryker reporting. Nearly 90 % of my crew was injured during the dozens of battles with the Borg. Today, I have witnessed as my ship was lowered to the planet surface of SR 388. Damage analysis will take atleast 7 days. Repairs is scheduled to begin in about 10 days. Until then, I am a captain without a ship. My crew lost their home. The starbase medical staff is keeping me in Sickbay for the next two days. They are also scanning me for Borg nanoprobes that may be hiding in my blood stream."

August 12, 2390  
Earth – Lynn Lake, Manitoba

Pretoria arrived on Earth and headed straight to Manitoba.

Stryker approached the house of Alice's parents. Ael and Olivia ran to meet him, the twins was crying, Stryker and Alice was too.


End file.
